Critical Influences (Part A)

Maybe you are that one Christian in the workplace or school or family or wherever you are. You're just that one person that won't play by the world's rules because Christ is your ruler.

You are a Micaiah. He says I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me but evil. Yeah, because you do evil. What is with crooks?

I mean, liars hate to be lied to if you might notice that. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1 Kings chapter 22 as he begins his message, Critical Influences. We have the king. We've been talking about this monster. Of course, he's influenced by evil, by hell.

He likes it that way. Then there's King Jehoshaphat, a good king, but given to folly. He's influenced by apparently impetuous ideas, thoughts, responses. You know, if Jehoshaphat were a pastor, would I want to go to his church as much as I like him?

I don't know. As we go through it, maybe you'll see it and have to ask yourself the same question. Then there's Micaiah, the prophet. And of course, he's influenced by the Lord, swims against the stream if that's what it calls for and is an outstanding character. And I don't mean to take away from King Jehoshaphat. Again, to be a king in Judah at that time and to be so righteous is really an accomplishment.

We look at the first verse, chapter 22 verse 1. Now three years passed without war between Syria and Israel. Well, this is connected to chapter 20.

And the whole episode with Naboth happened within these three years, it seems like. This piece that it speaks of here resulted from a treaty between Ahab and Ben-Hadad, the Syrian king. Of course, Ben-Hadad comes into the land, Ahab goes to war with him twice, defeats him twice.

The second time he's got him cornered, he spares his life, he brings him up into the chariot with him. And Ben-Hadad, the Syrian king, says, I'm going to return the land that my father took that belonged to the Jews. I'm going to give that land back. Well, during this three-year period of peace, he did not give it back and therefore that created an uneasy peace because it grated on Ahab.

It bugged him. Where's the land? This is the treaty.

If he doesn't keep his word on this, what else will he break his word with? And this is becoming even more serious because Syria is becoming a larger and larger threat militarily speaking. You know, that would include or draw concern to the trade routes.

The economics and the military have much to do with this. He could not forcibly retake the land. He wasn't that strong.

He could defend, but taking, invading is another story. Now Jehoshaphat, the Judean king, is going to visit him, Ahab in the north. And that is going to give Ahab opportunity to sweet talk Jehoshaphat.

So let's open it up. Verse 2, then it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went down to visit the king of Israel. Now let's just, a little background on king Jehoshaphat from 2 Chronicles chapter 17. Now Yahweh was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the former ways of his father David. He did not seek the bowels, but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments and not according to the acts of Israel. That would be the northern kingdom.

He's referring to Israel. Therefore, Yahweh established a kingdom in his hand and his heart took delight in the ways of Yahweh. Moreover, he removed the high places and the wooden images from Judah. And in the third year of his reign, he sent his leaders to teach in the cities of Judah and with them Levites and with them priests. So they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them. They went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. So he institutes righteousness and he enforces righteousness and he institutes a program of Bible study to educate the people. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

There it is illustrated in this righteous king how different he is from all the others except for that one problem. He's attracted to bad boys. Influence is critical. There's a saying, you show me your friends, I'll show you your future.

If you're dumb enough to let the devil pick your friends, then you're going to suffer consequences that you cannot reverse more than likely. Earlier, well this visit is diplomatic. This good king visiting Ahab, you got to say, doesn't he know what Ahab was doing to the prophets of God? Does he know what's going on up there with Jezebel? Well, that becomes a big question because his visit to the northern kingdom, the motive was diplomacy. Earlier, he gave his son Jehoram to marry Athaliah, the daughter presumably of Ahab and Jezebel, certainly Ahab's daughter, but presumably, and she just as bad as Jezebel. So you had the nation of Israel, Solomon dies, Rehoboam goofs up, the nation splits, you have the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. In the northern kingdom, Jezebel ends up being the wicked witch of the north. When her daughter marries into the south, she becomes the wicked witch of the south. So Satan's got coverage.

He's manning the job. 2 Chronicles 18, Jehoshaphat had riches and honor and abundance and by marriage, he allied himself with Ahab. After some years, he went down to visit Ahab in Samaria. That's what we're reading about here in chapter 22. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen in abundance for him and the people who were with him and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. We'll get to that. So this is a big feast.

This is a big, big event. After all, they're in-laws now. Verse 3. Now the king of Israel said to his servants, do you know that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, but we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Sirius.

And there it is. He told me he was going to give me Ramoth Gilead in the other cities and he hasn't and it's bugging me. But we can't just take it like we want to. So there was physical peace between Israel and Syria, but not peace of mind. There's no visible threat except he's not making good on his promise and it vexed Ahab that this territory remained outside of his rule. I mean, he even spared Ben-Hadad's life.

You think the least he could do was give back a city that he stole in the first place. And where he says, but we hesitate, the Hebrew is sort of an omonopoeia. They're hushed for it. So he's saying, we want to take it, but we're hushed. We're shut down. And so he says to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria.

It's a big problem. He's manipulating Jehoshaphat. He's appealing to his sense of, you know, I'm your brother.

I'll help you out with this. We're family now. And Jehoshaphat, you know, he's just naive. He's a good guy, but he's just naive and makes these bad decisions when these bad boys come up with a good idea. Bad boys coming up with a good idea.

Well, there really isn't a good idea. He's going to lose, almost lose his life on this one. He's going to lose money on one of the others and almost loses his life again on a similar campaign with another dingbat king. Verse 4, so he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me and fight in Ramoth Gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. So he says, you know, Hinting is not working with this guy.

I'm going to just come out and say, hey, how about you just come. Jehoshaphat has this enormous army. He's got a million man army and Ahab knows that.

And the alliance will be, you know, Syria won't be able to stand against the two. At least that's how he's thinking. And so, again, he didn't volunteer. I'll have to ask him, you know, this dramatic speech. It was unnecessary by Jehoshaphat. I am as you are, my people as your people, my, well, they were all Jewish people, granted. But one was in, one kingdom had become totally apostate and the other was struggling not to become apostate. Verse 5, also Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire for me the word of Yahweh today. So there's the righteous thing. And, you know, he's born again with the Old Testament version, you know, his righteousness in his heart. And, you know, he just, I need to find out what God wants is Jehoshaphat.

Now they have two different gods. Ahab serves, of course, Baal and whoever else was convenient for him, but not Jehovah. Whereas Jehoshaphat does. He's a God-centered king, even though he has this, his judgment is muddled by his emotional attraction to things not detailed for us. So he wants to know what God has to say. Now Ahab, he could care less what God has to say. In fact, he couldn't care less.

He had already been at the bottom. There are some people that they'll ask what the Bible says. They'll ask the pastor, well, what does the Bible say? And really, they don't want the truth. They want the blessing. And after a while, they learn just not to ask because they don't want the truth.

And so they will skip that step. Life is hard for everybody. Christian and non-Christian. Again, the flair for understatement of Jesus Christ. It rains on the just and the unjust.

It's raining anvils sometimes. And he leaves that part out. Well, he doesn't because he has made it clear this life is cursed and it is up to us to swing our way through it to get to the next life where there is no curse. And we who believe, believe it is worth it. And that is where we get our word worship from.

God is worth it. Verse 6, then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall I go to Ramoth Gilead to fight or shall I refrain? So they said, go up for Adonai the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.

Well, we're seeing here that the majority is not automatically right. These 400 men are likely associated with Jezebel, certainly with Ahab, false prophets. And they think they can forge the name, the covenant name of Yahweh into their prophecies. But they, again, they are false and using the generic term for Lord, they're not using the covenant term yet when they said the Lord will deliver it.

And they're going to be wrong, of course, because they're just under the influence, that critical influence in the spiritual part of us. It is either under the Lord God Almighty or something else from hell. Verse 7, and Jehoshaphat said, is there not a prophet of Yahweh here that we may inquire of him? See, he knows these guys are frauds. He's tolerating it because, you know, he's just such a nice guy. He can't say to Ahab, why did I even come up here?

Why did I give my son to your wicked witch Athaliah? You know, he doesn't go that way. And that's what I want from him. And I'm sure you've got things like you want from me.

We all have that to some degree at some point. I should take back some of that. Anyhow. So he knows better. He's not going to accept these imitation prophets and their counterfeit religion.

But he's not going to learn his lesson. Later we will find him reciting these very same words to another king. 2 Kings, chapter 3, verse 11.

We'll just take that part. Jehoshaphat said, is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord by him? Yeah, this was at a time when these three kings were dying of thirst. And when Elisha gets there, he's irritated. He said, look, I need some music.

Just bring me, seriously, I need a musician. He's got to calm down. He's so over the top with these dumb kings going out to war without water and the righteous. And he says, if it weren't for Jehoshaphat, you'd all be dead. So anyway, you meet Christians, they love the Lord, but they just make dumb decisions repeatedly.

You are to be patient with them. Verse 8. So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is still one man. Now you can hear, he hates, he hates Micaiah the prophet. As Ahab is speaking, and you can hear it in this one man.

I hate this guy. He's going to say that. So the king, verse 8. So the king said to Jehoshaphat, there is still one man.

That's right. There is still one man. And this one man stands up against evil.

Anyway, that's not how he means it. Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of Yahweh. But I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say such things. See again, Jehoshaphat, he's such a good boy. Instead of saying, look you better shut your mouth before I do it for you, or something like that. No, no, he's like, you know, don't say such things, you know, it's not nice.

He's probably got a little hand puppet with him that he keeps, a little teddy bear. Anyway, I still like him. I mean, he's just an adorable guy.

Well, there's still one man that won't go away. Maybe you are that one Christian in the workplace, or school, or family, or wherever you are. You're just that one person that won't play by the world's rules, because Christ is your ruler.

You are a Micaiah. He says, I hate him because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Yeah, because you do evil. What is with crooks? I mean, liars hate to be lied to, if you might notice that. And they also hate to be caught lying, so they lie about being.

What is wrong with some people? Well, it's that critical influence. Satanic influence.

Doesn't have to be dramatic and just be ruinous. Ahab's idea of God's word was that it was a hindrance to achieving what he wanted in life. Micaiah didn't share that view. And to Ahab, eternal truth didn't matter.

What mattered is what you could get hold of in this life. That was the spirit of Esau. Esau, you know, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated.

Esau was a man of the earth. And Ahab, of course, is far worse. And he did not think that wickedness should be called out. Especially his wickedness should not be addressed.

And this is the height of madness and we see it paraded before us today through the ages. He had a fear of the truth because it was against him. And Jehoshaphat said, verse 8, let not the king say such things. It's a weak protest and this from a man whose heart stilled to lights in the Lord and sent out the Bible teachers throughout the land of Judah.

Verse 9, then the king of Israel called an officer and said, bring me Micaiah, the son of Imlah, quickly. He's impatient. He wants to get past this.

To him it's a formality. They're going to war. And Jehoshaphat has already been manipulated. And so he's just got to still see the face of this prophet.

He's just irritated. And so this interruption, he moves on, verse 10. Then the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, having put on their robes, sat each one on his throne at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria and all the people prophesied before them.

Well, they're singing songs and they're entertaining them with religious junk. And Jehoshaphat is, you know, he's sitting through this stuff saying, well, I don't believe it, but it's very interesting. I mean, it's a portrait of evil and naivete here at the same time. Here's evil Ahab in his long robe, his kingly attire, and Jehoshaphat is matching.

He's got one too and he's just naive. Now, these threshing floors, there weren't many places that could accommodate. You've got 400 prophets here, plus all the king's court and the other people.

This is a large crowd. And the threshing floors would accommodate that. They were seasonal.

You wouldn't be threshing wheat only in the wheat season or barley. So this made a nice place for everybody to gather. And there are the two bumps on a log. Ahab and Jehoshaphat, they should not be together.

This is not an even yoke. Verse 11. Now Zedekiah, the son of Canaanah, he was from Samoa.

No, he wasn't, but his name sounds like it. Anyway, he made horns of iron for himself and he said, thus says Yahweh, with these horns you shall gore the Assyrians until they are destroyed. I don't know what Jehoshaphat is saying. Ahab is enjoying this, but here is this Zedekiah. He's the leader of the pack of these false prophets. And he grabs some iron and he holds them up like horns because, after all, the gods were strong as bulls and they could just push and gore anybody in their way.

It's dramatic and it's false. Today, what they do is they get an artist to make a really nice cover to their book. And Christians look at that cover or they read the title, Experiencing God. Well, I've got a book like that and there's no artwork on the cover.

And it's got everything I need in it. That doesn't mean I can't read other books, but it does mean I'm not going to read other books that are contradicting this book. So they still get their iron horns out and tell you what God is going to do.

And it's forgery, assigning his name to documents that he did not author. Well, Jehoshaphat dismisses this. Zedekiah forges the name of Yahweh and Ahab is just, again, in a hurry to get going with the war.

Verse 12, and all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth, Gilead, and prosper, for Yahweh will deliver it into your hand. These are worshippers of Baal, but they think that, you know, gods are interchangeable. I mean, you know, we got the same context into the spiritual world. You know, look at Jesus, Buddha, what's the difference?

You're going to find out. That last, after that last breath you take, you're going to find out the difference and it's going to be too late. Well, to make a difference, right? Verse 12, verse 13, Then the messengers who had gone up to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them and speak encouragement. This is why you will never see me at a city or a county ribbon cutting ceremony. I just, you know, Pastor Rick, could you come up and share some words for everybody?

Yes, I can, but you won't ask me again after this one. You know, they're telling him, they're writing to him, Look, don't offend the king with truth. Whatever you do, lie to him. That's not an offense to this guy.

Telling the truth is what offends him. People tell this to churches to this day. Whatever you do, don't tell it like it is.

Go with the flow, don't go with God. We're not the God of the Bible. Some believe that peace is superior to truth. And God says, no, there is no peace without the truth. James 3.17, But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.

That is the order that it goes in. Now we have to endure a lot to get these things worked out. They're not always instant. There's often a process, even Jesus endured so many things that if he didn't, he just would have wiped everyone out on the bottom line. Anyway, Micaiah the prophet, when he hears, told, Listen, don't rock the boat. You know you've got a history with the king and it ain't good.

Don't rock the boat. Micaiah is unimpressed. The wicked do not impress him. He does not think, wow, if I could be like one of you guys, or I could see the logic behind this.

He's not like that at all. In fact, he's going to get his sarcasm going, verse 14. And Micaiah said, when he finally gets there now, As the Lord, well, you're not there yet. He's telling the deputy who's come to fetch him, As Yahweh lives, verse 14, Whatever Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.

He's already telling the truth. It makes us mindful of Acts 4.29, Now look on their threats and grant to your servants, That with all boldness we may speak your word. Well, there it is illustrated in the Old Testament, Almost a thousand years before the apostles spoke it there in Jerusalem. Verse 15, Then he came to the king, And the king said to him, Micaiah, Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, Or shall we refrain?

And how do you like my robe? And he answered him, Go and prosper, or for Yahweh will deliver it, Into the hand of the king. Verse 16, So the king said to him, How many times shall I make you swear, That you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh? I love it, because, Oh, now, shall go, king.

There had to be something, Either some dramatic rolling of the eyes, Or some motto to something triggered Ahab, To know that Micaiah is patronizing him. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 1 Kings has had a lasting imprint on your life. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series or share it with someone you know, please visit CrossReferenceRadio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit CrossReferenceRadio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's CrossReferenceRadio.com. Our time with you today is about up, but we hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the word of God. Join us again as Pastor Rick covers more in the book of 1 Kings on Cross Reference Radio.